Crying Babies - Jill Greenberg

Having looked at Sam Taylor Wood, I stumbled upon Jill Greenberg's photography where her series of crying children stood out in particular. Greenberg captures a range of children crying in a series of around 35 pieces. Her methods involve giving the child a lollipop to enjoy, only to take it away.

With the subject being children, the impact is decisively different from Wood's crying men. Children are delicate, pure and beautiful. We instinctively move to protect them. Seeing the children's raw expression and emotion stir memories of our own childhood and the anguish we perhaps once had to endure. To a degree, we feel what they feel as we instinctively feel compelled to ease one's suffering.

The effectiveness in both Greenberg's and Wood's work stems from the emotion of the subject. Both confront us with raw emotions that can relate to a personal level. Thus, portraiture with an emotional context can sometimes overwhelm us as in this case a child crying is all we are presented to see, making for a powerful gripping image.

You can find more of Greenberg's work here.